Also on the new Boule team are Hide and Mariko Kubota from Osaka. Hide's baking breads (wonder if the new kitchen is gearing up for some wholesale bread business too), and she's working in pastry. Conspicuously absent was Michelle Myers. But Providence pastry chef Adrian Vasquez was there, and so was former Sona pastry chef Ron Mendoza, who recently left the French Laundry for L'Auberge Carmel and was in town for one night.

Boule Atelier is scheduled to officially open next week, as is Boule's Beverly Hills outpost. Any others on the horizon? "I would love to open a Boule in Tokyo," says chef-owner David Myers.